Page 31 of Vicious Reign

He shudders, a ripple rolling down his body when his name leaves my lips, and I make a mental note to say it again just to see that look on his face.

“What’s the matter, Raven? Were you not satisfied with your earlier meal?”

His mood is giving me whiplash—snarky to lustful to serious and back to snarky. I know he’s being an asshole right now, but it’s hard to focus on anything other than the way he’s making me feel. It’s the right amount of pressure for me to climb that peak, but I know I’ll never reach the top at this rate.

“I need more.” I’m not above begging.

“More what, Raven? I wanna hear you say it.”

I might’ve been reserved before, but they’ve awakened something inside of me. Something dormant and compliant. So really, they only have themselves to blame for what happens next.

“I want you to touch me, Rafael.”

He runs his thumb across his bottom lip as he stares at me. Whatever he’s trying to communicate with his gaze is lost in my fog of arousal. “You don’t know what you’re asking for. There are things you don’t know—things that might change how you view me. I’m not a good man, Madison.”

His use of my real name catches my attention faster than anything else he’s said. I tilt my head and look at him through the cloud of lust leaking from my pores. Déjà vu hits me in the gut. Dante and I had this conversation already, and I’ll tell Aries the same thing I told him. “We’ve been through this, Aries. I know enough.”

“You don’t know the half of it, baby.”

“So tell me, then. Let me help you,” I murmur along his jaw, his stubble scratching my lips. “Let’s make a trade. A secret for a secret.”

He pulls back far enough to look me in the eye. His gaze flies between my eyes, and for thirty seconds, neither one of us says anything. Finally, he nods. “But first, I need to eat. I’m fucking famished.”

He gently slides his palm up the front of my throat, using his thumb to tilt my head to the side before he slams his lips against mine. It’s barely restrained passion and weeks of pent-up sexual chemistry. It’s a battle for control, both of us reaching toward it.

My legs widen without thought, and he snakes an arm around my waist, hauling me against his body, erasing that inch of space between our bodies in a blink. My nipples peak against my robe, the fabric suddenly feeling hot and restrictive.

His lips glide down my throat, leaving hot, open-mouthed kisses in their wake. “Do you have any idea how often I’ve thought of this? Dreamed of it?” He continues to trail his mouth over my exposed shoulder and across the tops of my tits, branding his unique lip pattern in my skin. “How many nights I went to bed with my cock in my hand and the fantasized taste of your pussy on my tongue?”

I swallow a whimper as my chest expands with ragged breaths.

All at once, his hands and lips leave me. I feel their loss like a boulder in my gut. I open my mouth, a protest on the tip of my tongue, but it stalls out at the expression on his face. Dark, sooty lashes frame his equally dark eyes as he holds me hostage with one look.

“Do you trust me?”

Déjà vu has my mind spinning again. I blink a few times to clear it and nod. “You know I do.”

“Good.” He grips my upper thighs, his thumbs only a couple inches from where I’m desperate for his touch, and hauls me into the water. He shifts his hold to my waist at the same time the cool water laps at my overheated skin.

A squeak flies from my mouth as I wrap my arms around his neck. Whatever I was expecting him to do, it wasn’t this. He walks us toward the edge of the infinity pool, nothing but a single pane of glass separates us from certain death.

Dread settles over me when I get a glimpse of how high we really are. It eliminates the oxygen from my lungs and the blazing flame of lust. I swallow thickly and tighten my arms around his neck.

“I’m scared.”

He slides one big, warm hand up my leg, smoothing across my thigh. “Of what?”

My breath hitches when his thumb grazes the spot where my thigh meets my pelvis, the skin so sensitive that I suppress my need to squirm. It distracts me from my fear. “I’m not a great swimmer, and we’re so high up and—”

He slides his palms higher, over my hips and around the curve of my ass. My robe slides off my shoulders as it soaks up water, exposing more skin to the Las Vegas air. “Shh, Raven. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”

My breaths come in pants as my robe opens up further, only held together by the tie. His touch feels electric, sending sparks of magic along my nerves. Lust dances on my tongue and my toes curl when he grips my thighs in his big hands and walks across the pool. His thumbs slowly brush the space where the hem of my panties would be. If I was wearing any.

My legs lock around his waist, slamming my overly sensitive pussy against his lower abs. I flinch at the contact—it feels too good. My robe streams behind us, the soaked material slipping down to gather in the crook of my elbows. Just before we reach the lip of the pool, I wiggle my arms out of the wet, heavy material and let it flop into the pool with a slap.

Aries sucks in a breath as he stares, transfixed. My nipples tighten under his watchful gaze and my pussy throbs. My nerve endings feel raw, overloaded with pleasure. I idly wonder if it’s possible to come just from this—this sweet torturous anticipation.

I don’t have to wait long, because in the next instant, Aries lifts me out of the water like I’m weightless. He sets me on the edge of the pool with careful movements, less than a foot away from the balcony’s edge.

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